5 Awesome Things from Nashville: 90s Rayna Hair

Perhaps not the greatest of all Rayna hair, but surely a worthy competitorRayna calls Deacon from her private jet, pretending to be en route to New York (but she’s really in Biloxi). Eager to get back on the road, Juliette calls her band in for rehearsal. She forgot that husband Avery is also in the band and someone needs to watch the baby; fortunately, he has a sitter lined up. Dreamy doctor Caleb invites Scarlett to a fancy society dinner. Deadbeat mom Kylie shows up at Gunnar’s door looking for Mikah. Gunnar says the kid’s at her parents, he tried to keep him, but it didn’t work because he’s actually Mikah’s uncle, not his father. Luke is visiting Jade’s place in L.A., where she’s getting ready to host one of them newfangled Hollywood parties. Layla is also in L.A. with grumpy/skeevy, boyfriend/manager Jeff and ready to make a splash at Jade’s shindig. Bucky informs Juliette that Highway 65 can’t line up any arena shows for her yet (because no promoter wants her), so she tells him to go to hell. Deacon comes home to find Maddie and Colt engaged in half-naked shenanigans. Rayna tracks down Beverly and begs her to spot brother Deacon a liver.

Scarlett and Gunnar, a.k.a The Xs1, are doing interviews and fielding offers from labels; he’s too weirded out about Kylie to be excited, which makes Scarlett worry. Prostitute Natasha warns Mayor Teddy that the feds put a wire on her and now they’re after him. Layla fits right in at Jade’s goofy party,2 while Luke and Jeff sulk in the corner. Avery tells assistant Emily he hopes that stoking Juliette’s career ambitions will give her the balance she needs to finally enjoy parenting.3 When Luke hears about Maddie and Colt’s extracurricular activities, he gladly packs his bags to head home. Jade is momentarily relieved that he isn’t leaving her for good, except that he is. Bye, Xtina! We enjoyed your colorful wig collection.

Here are 5 awesome things from last night’s Nashville

Quality time with Deacon and Juliette After meeting with Bucky, Jules beelines to Rayna’s mansion where she finds Deacon reeling from the Maddie/Colt incident. She gasps when he tells her the details. “Were they doing it?” He can’t bear to ask, so Jules offers to give Maddie the talk and be her “cautionary tale.” That goes well, Jules verifies that the two teens have not intercoursed yet,4 she tells Deacon and he’s so relieved. Then he tells Jules about his cancer, she pretty-cries and it’s all very sweet. But you never get the sense that this dynamic is building toward some future romance, cuz they already done did their own intercoursing a long time ago. That’s why I love Deacon and Juliette time. The trajectory of their relationship may be the least predictable aspect of this show.

90s Rayna Hair = Awesome Flashback of the Week Rayna begs Beverly to reconsider her hard-hearted stance against helping Deacon. Meanwhile, Bev flashes back to the 1990s moment when she and Deacon were performing at the Bluebird open mic, and a certain ginger with fabulous locks walked in. The song itself – “Trouble’s Moving In” – is a beautiful, bluesy, season 1 worthy jam. And, of course, it’s fitting. Rayna and Deacon’s love-at-first-sight vibe means it’s curtains for Beverly’s dreams. True, she could have been Rayna’s back-up singer when Deacon signed on as guitarist, but Bev wasn’t content to be a lackey. He kinda sold her out and now I get why she hates them all so much. When Rayna later offers a $1 million bribe for a bit o’ liver, I had to give a little fist pump for Beverly. Ain’t no shame in cashing in, lady, though maybe you should hold out of for a record deal.

Scarlett thinks Caleb is her golden ticket to stability Scarlett just can’t stop worrying about Gunnar and even drops by his house after the fancy party to be sure he’s okay. By this point, he’s learned that dead brother Jason raped Kylie (who genuinely didn’t know he was Mikah’s dad). He’s trying to help her get in touch with her son, but all he can tell Scarlett is “it’s complicated.” She berates him for getting dragged down by his past, he says she’s stuck up now that she has a doctor boyfriend and she’s all, “He knows who he is, and what he wants out of life!” Yeah, he has prospects!5 Except, Scarlett only goes to Caleb’s house after she fights with Gunnar, and Gunnar’s probable rekindling with Kylie is… problematic, to say the least. So, I guess The Xs really do belong together, grumble grumble.

Jeff turns Mean Girls At the party, Layla takes a selfie with Jade and some dudebro celeb. She’s about to tweet it, but Jade forbids that. Layla diligently puts her phone away. She then spends the night getting wasted and making out with Dudebro, in the hopes that others will talk… in a good way. Jeff stews the whole time, because he hates Jade (his ex-fiancee) and he’s annoyed with Layla for ignoring his advice and sucking some moron’s face. So when she passes out drunk on a bench, he steals her phone and tweets the forbidden selfie. WTG Jeff, you are the Kenya Moore of Nashville!

Teddy’s tangled web gets tanglier All throughout the episode, Mayor Teddy hints that he’s getting ready to say goodbye. He buys gifts for Maddie and Daphne. He stares at their photos on his desk. He places a letter in a sealed envelope. Aw, geez, don’t kill yourself, Teddy! You’re not that annoying. Then his buddy from the U.S. Attorney’s office drops in. They have an honest chat about his recent foray into corruption, but his friend is willing to help him get out of trouble. “I just need you to do something for me, first.” Good lord, does U.S. Attorney guy want a record deal, too?

He even goes along with Juliette’s madcap, pop-up concert on the roof of a downtown building, which leads to awesome post-show elevator sex!! Then they get home, the baby starts crying, and Jules is miserable again. ↵

He even goes along with Juliette’s madcap, pop-up concert on the roof of a downtown building, which leads to awesome post-show elevator sex!! Then they get home, the baby starts crying, and Jules is miserable again.

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Since 2009, Tara has been writing snarky essays about pop culture, motherhood and her various neuroses at Rare Oats. She spends most of her other time selling cheese, raising a small human and goofing off with her husband Dan. E-mail: tara@whatelseison.tv